Lake Placid Middle High School (News photo Andy Flynn) LAKE PLACID Lake Placid Middle-High School is shifting its students to remote learning again after a staff member tested positive for COVID-19. In a call to parents on Wednesday, district Superintendent Roger Catania said middle and high school students would attend class remotely on Thursday and Friday while the Essex County Health Department conducts contact tracing. This isn’t the first time a case of COVID-19 has been discovered at Lake Placid Central School District. Since September, the district has seen at least seven cases of COVID-19, according to the state’s COVID-19 Report Card database. Of those, one was a staff member, four were off-site students, and two were on-site students.
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Karen OâConnor, left, an ICU nurse from Chazy, became the first person in the North Country region to be vaccinated Dec. 15, 2020. Administering the vaccine is CVPH Nursing Director Carly Haag, right.
(Provided photo â Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital) The Essex County Health Department’s role in the fight against COVID-19 is expected to shift in the coming weeks. So far, hospitals and pharmacies throughout the North Country have been responsible for receiving and administering vaccines, which have been allocated for health care workers, nursing home residents and first responders as part of the state’s first phase of vaccine distribution. The number of people eligible to receive the vaccine is expected to broaden in the coming weeks. Gov. Andrew Cuomo has said the general public could be eligible for vaccines in late January at the earliest, and the county Health Department is preparing to step in when that happens.
eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com Essex County Public Health Director Linda Beers speaks in Elizabethtown during the department’s first press conference of the pandemic on March 18. (News photo Elizabeth Izzo) Friends drive by Ruth Hart’s home on Interlaken Avenue Sunday, May 3, 2020 wishing her a happy 101st birthday. Instead of her usual party at the Crowne Plaza, in which she invited friends to visit her in 2018 and 2019, the community held a drive-by parade in her honor due to coronavirus health and safety guidelines. (News photo Elizabeth Izzo) Adirondack Health Assistant Vice President of Patient Care Services Carrie Reardon, left, prepares to test Lake Placid Elementary School Technology Coordinator and Village Trustee Jason Leon, right, for COVID-19 at a mobile testing site at the North Elba Show Grounds on May 13. (News photo Elizabeth Izzo)
eizzo@adirondackdailyenterprise.com The number of new cases of COVID-19 in Franklin County rose sharply over the weekend, with about 2.1% of the county’s population now either in quarantine or isolation. Essex County also saw an increase in cases, with about 1.1% of its population now in quarantine. The Essex County Health Department on Monday reported 43 new cases of COVID-19 since its last update on Dec. 23, bringing the total number of active cases countywide to 76. As of Monday, 434 residents were under public health orders to quarantine. Franklin County Public Health announced a combined 31 new cases of COVID-19 on Saturday and Sunday, plus another 14 new cases on Monday. At least 1,091 residents were either in isolation or quarantine as of Monday.
SARANAC LAKE The room was far from quiet. Inside the in-house vaccination clinic at Adirondack Medical Center, a group of health care workers, wearing masks and other personal protective equipment, joked and poked fun at one another as they waited for a delivery they’d anticipated for months. The first batch of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines arrived at Adirondack Medical Center on Wednesday afternoon. Some staff at the hospital had already been vaccinated elsewhere, but this shipment was the first to be delivered directly to the Saranac Lake hospital. As the first of about 60 AMC staff to be vaccinated that day sat down, arms bared, the atmosphere was celebratory. The coronavirus continues to spread, but for some people on the front lines of the fight against COVID-19, this moment was a bright spot. Environmental Tech James Rochelle was the first to be vaccinated in-house at AMC, followed by Physician’s Assistant Julie Loving.